Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Radcliffe-Crocker, Henry
RADCLIFFE-CROCKER, HENRY (1845–1909), dermatologist, born at Brighton on 6 March 1845, was son of Henry Radcliffe Crocker. After attending a private school at Brighton, he was thrown on his own resources at the age of sixteen, and went as apprentice and assistant to a doctor at Silverdale, Staffordshire. Studying by himself amid the duties of his apprenticeship, he passed the matriculation and preliminary scientific examination for the M.B. London degree, and in 1870 entered University College Hospital medical school, eking out his narrow means by acting as dispenser to a doctor in Sloane Street. In 1873 he passed M.R.C.S., and next year L.R.C.P. In his later London University examinations he gained the gold medal in materia medica (1872) and the university scholarship and gold medal in forensic medicine, besides taking honours in medicine and obstetric medicine (1874). At the hospital he won the Fellowes gold medal in clinical medicine (1872). In 1874 he graduated B.S. (London) and next year M.D.
Meanwhile he was a resident obstetric physician and physician's assistant at University College Hospital; clinical assistant at the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton ; and resident medical officer at Charing Cross Hospital (for six months). In 1875 he was appointed resident medical officer in University College Hospital, and next year assistant medical officer to the skin department, in succession to (Sir) John Tweedy.
In 1878 he was appointed assistant physician and pathologist to the East London Hospital for Children at Shadwell, and in 1884 honorary physician. He remained on the staff of the hospital until 1893. He became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1877, and a fellow in 1887, and he served on the council (1906–8). He was a member of the court of examiners of the Society of Apothecaries for many years (1880-8 and 1888-96). Meanwhile Radcliffe-Crocker was specialising in diseases of the skin under the influence of William Tilbury Fox [q. v.], whom in 1879 he succeeded as physician and dermatologist at the University College Hospital. He was an original member of the Dermatological Society of London (1882 ; treasurer, 1900-5), and of the Dermatological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1894; president, 1899). When these societies amalgamated with other London societies to form the Royal Society of Medicine (1907), he was first president of the dermatological section (1907-8). He also was president of his section at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association in London (1905). He was an honorary member of the American Dermatological Society, of the Wiener Dermatologische Gesellschaft, and of the Società Italiana di Dermatologia e Sifilografia, and corresponding member of the Societe Française de Dermatologie, and of the Berliner Dermatologische Gesellschaft; and he delivered the Lettsomian lectures on inflammations of the skin before the Medical Society of London (1903).
He was a prominent and active member of the British Medical Association, serving on the council from 1890 to 1904, and as treasurer from 1905 to 1907, and being a good business man he was chiefly instrumental in bringing about, whilst treasurer, the rebuilding and enlargement of the headquarters of the association in the Strand, and in making important changes in the business conduct of ’The British Medical Journal,' the journal of the association.
During his later years ill-health interrupted his public work. He died suddenly from heart failure whilst on a holiday at Engelberg, Switzerland, on 22 Aug. 1909, and was buried there. He married in 1880 Constance Mary, only daughter of Edward Fussell of Brighton, physician to the Sussex County Hospital, who survived him. There were no children.
From 1898 he had a country residence at Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. His extensive library, consisting of dermatological works in English, French, German, and Italian, was given by Mrs. Radcliffe-Crocker to the medical school of University College, together with 1500l. in 1912 to found a dermatological travelling scholarship.
Radcliffe-Crocker's high position as a dermatologist was due to his general knowledge of medicine, his particular skill as a clinician, and his power of expressing himself in his writings clearly and attractively. He always was emphatic in insisting on the importance of treating the general condition or diathesis which might be the predis- posing cause of a skin affection, as well as treating directly the local condition itself. He was always among the first to test the value of new remedies and means of treatment. He was a distinguished leprologist, and his papers on rare skin diseases were most illuminating.
Radcliffe-Crocker's chief work, which held standard rank in the medical literature of the world, was 'Diseases of the Skin: their Description, Pathology,Diagnosis and Treatment' (1888), with, a companion volume of 'The Atlas of Diseases of the Skin,' issued in bi-monthly parts (1893-6; 2 vols. fol. 1896). A second edition of the treatise in 1893, which greatly improved on the first, was recognised as the most comprehensive manual of dermatology then published in England. In the third edition (2 vols. 1903), in which he was helped by Dr. George Pernet, 15,000 cases of skin diseases were analysed and classified, and more plates of the microscopical anatomy of the diseases were included. The 'Atlas' forms a complete and systematic pictorial guide to dermatology, each disease being represented by coloured plates of actual cases, which were accompanied by a short and clear descriptive text.
Radcliffe-Crocker wrote on psoriasis and drug eruptions in Quain's 'Dictionary of Medicine' (new edit. 1894); on leprosy, purpura, guineaworm, erythema, ichthyosis &c., in Heath's 'Dictionary of Surgery' (1886); on psoriasis and other squamous eruptions, and phlegmonous and ulcerative eruptions in 'Twentieth Century Medicine' (1896); on diseases of the hair in Clifford Allbutt's 'System of Medicine' (vol. viii, 1899). He was a regular contributor to the 'Lancet,' writing reviews and notices of contemporary dermatological work.
[Information from Mrs. Radchffe-Crocker (widow); Lancet, 4 Sept. 1909; Brit. Med. Journal, 11 Sept. 1909; Index Cat. Surgeon-General's Office Washington.]